Submarine Channel

Ilona de Bruin’s “Umibozu” VR game edition of De Pont

De Pont is a game and film challenge. Film and game professionals and students, designers, and storytellers are invited to create a short (interactive) animation or game that takes place on the famous free Amsterdam ferry. 
A student of visual effects at the Netherlands Film Academy, Ilona de Bruin is working on a VR game for De Pont for the Oculus Rift platform. Taking inspiration from an eerie Japanese folktale about the “Umibozu,” an ancient Japanese spirit who sinks ships, the player is gradually taken away from the Amsterdam setting into a strange new world where creatures from myths and legends emerge from the river, threatening to destroy the ferry.

Challenges

Asked about the biggest challenges she faced during the production, Ilona points to creating custom assets, creating specific light effects and light transitions. Managing the storytelling part was especially difficult. Instead of working with an elaborate script, she now thinks the project would have been more manageable if she had broken down the script down into smaller parts.

De Pont at the Netherlands Film Festival

The first public presentation of De Pont will be at the Netherlands Film Festival during the Digital Storytelling Pitch on 29 September 2015, 1 – 6.30 PM in Utrecht, Tivoli (more info in Dutch and English).
Ilona de Bruin’s “Umibozu” demo will be showcased during this presentation along with a couple of other demos.